• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 1 1. Miss Thornton - TRAD 2. Andy McGann’s No 2 - composed by ANDY MCGANN 3. Maids of Mount Cisco - TRAD Miss Thornton’s Reel is a tune we have been playing as long as we can remember. It is listed in “O’Neill’s 1001 Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Airs and Marches” as tune number 534 and we don’t deviate too much from the original melody here. Andy McGann’s No 2 is a tune picked up from various sessions in the late eighties and early nineties. The Maids of Mount Cisco is another popular session tune and one that we’ve played for many years. It can be found in notation form in Ceol Rince na hEireann, volume 1 as tune 118. LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 2 1. Horse with a Heart - TRAD 2. Paddy on the Rocks - composed by NOEL SWEENEY 3. Munster Bacon - TRAD The Horse with a Heart is a tune that we learned from an early Altan recording. The second tune was written by the fabulous Noel Sweeney formerly of Co Leitrim and now living in Longford. Noel has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement since we moved to Longford and it was great to be able to include this tune on the album. Munster Bacon is another old favourite from “O’Neill’s 1001 Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Airs and Marches”. It can be found as tune 340 and hopefully we’re fairly close to the setting in O’Neill’s! LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 3 1. The Honeymoon - TRAD 2. Fahy’s - Composed by Paddy Fahy 3. Devanney’s Goat - TRAD 4. Eddie Moloney’s - Composed by Eddie Moloney I learned the Honeymoon from a recording of flute player Billy Clifford entitled “Irish Traditional Flute Solos and Band Music from Kerry and Tipperary”. I’m not sure if the album is still available commercially but I did manage to find it recently on the internet. I recall spending many nights learning tunes from Billy Clifford’s playing and hope that this album will be re-issued. The second tune we believe was written by Paddy Fahy. Like most of the tunes named Fahy’s, we’re not fully sure if it was written by the man himself or credited to him for popularising it. It sounds like a Fahy tune to us though so we are crediting him as the composer. Devanney’s Goat is another old tune listed in Ceol Rince na hEireann volume 2 (tune 267). I first learned this tune and the one that follows from a flute recording of Frankie Gavin (Up and Away). We follow this as he did with Eddie Moloney’s reel. Again, I’m not sure if Eddie wrote this but since his name is lent to the tune we’re crediting him with the composition. If there are any flute players out there who haven’t heard the Frankie Gavin flute album, my word you’re in for a pleasant surprise when you do! LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 4 1. Cuil Aodha - TRAD 2. Con Cassidy’s - Composed by Con Cassidy 3. Tell Her I Am - TRAD I learned the Cuil Aodha from the playing of the group De Dannan many years ago. It is quite often played in G however we recorded it in A here as this would be the first key we would have learned it in. Con Cassidy’s I presume is from the bow and fiddle of Con Cassidy although not having met Con Cassidy, I learned this from an early recording of Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh called Ceol Aduaidh. This was a classic recording with such great tunes that I remember being absolutely blown away to hear what were very odd sounding tunes being played on the flute. That odd sounding music was of course Donegal music! I still haven’t recovered. Tell Her I Am is an old tune listed as No 37 in “O’Neill’s 1001 Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Airs and Marches”. The version in O’Neill’s however only seems to have two parts (which I’ve only noticed now) so I presume a third part or a middle part came into existence somewhere along the way. We would have both learned this tune from sessions I’m sure so please excuse the lack of alignment to the written notes! LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 5 1. Cronin’s - TRAD 2. Miss Galvin’s - TRAD 3. Tailor’s Twist - TRAD Cronin’s hornpipe may well have been written by Paddy Cronin. He certainly recorded it and it has been given his name. I have not been able to find any links that would give him the tune as one of his compositions as there are quite a number of tunes called Cronin’s or Paddy Cronin’s when in fact they were more popularised by him rather than written by him. I’m happy to be proven wrong on this though so if you know better please get in touch! Miss Galvin’s is a tune I learned from the whistle playing of Mary Bergin. There seems to be some debate as to whether this is a hornpipe or a barndance. Whaetever the musically correct home for this is - we’re playing it with a few hornpipes! The Tailor’s Twist (number 213 in Ceol Rince na hEireann volume 3). This is such a lovely hornpipe and not played very often (or not often enough whichever the case may be!). LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 6 1. Will You Go Away With Me? - TRAD 2. The Orphan - TRAD 3. Headwood Crossing - Composed by Patrick Davey In researching this tune and title it seems that there is some confusion between this tune and the tune entitled “Will You Come Home With Me?”. The latter is listed in O’Neill’s and doesn’t bear any resemblance to the tune we recorded or the tune we have learned and yet many recordings are confusingly listing that name as this tune. Confused? I am. Anyhow, we call this jig “Will You Go Away With Me?”. The Orphan Jig was learned from a recording of the great fiddle player Kathleen Collins entitled “Traditional Music Of Ireland”. For me this was a classic and timeless recording from which I learned many tunes and never tire of listening. The last tune in this set was composed by Patrick Davey. It’s an absolutely gorgeous tune and one that is very hard to forget once it has been learned! Thank you Patrick for a cracking tune! LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 7 1. Mayor Harrison’s Fedora - TRAD 2. Paddy Fahy’s - Composed by Paddy Fahy Mayor Harrison’s Fedora is an old tune collected in “O’Neill’s 1001 Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Airs and Marches” and listed as tune number 799. It has been recorded quite often and se we decided to play this in a different key that would fit better with the tune that follows. The second tune is another of Paddy Fahy’s compositions (or so we think!). We’ve taken both of these tunes at a slower pace which we hope suits the tunes and also the listener! LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 8 1. Doctor O’Neill - TRAD 2. Humours of Glendart - TRAD 3. Shandon Bells - TRAD Hooray for three trad tunes! These would be all quite standard session tunes and ones that we would have learned quite early in our playing days. They are all in “O’Neill’s 1001 Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Airs and Marches” and listed as numbers 6 (Doctor O’Neill), 19 (Humours of Glendart) and the dubious honour of being number 1 goes to Shandon Bells! Shandon Bells was one of the first tunes Karen ever learned along with Saddle The Pony from “Allan’s Irish Fiddler” which was given to her by her first accordion teacher Joe Coll. LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 9 1. Orla’s Reel - Composed by Paul Ruane 2. Crowley’s - TRAD 3. Ormond Sound - Composed by Paddy O’Brien The first tune was composed by our good friend Paul Ruane to whom we have dedicated the album. A mild-mannered and unassuming man who never mentioned to either of us that he wrote any tunes. As we were travelling back and forth to the UK to see Paul, our good friend Norman Holmes mentioned that Paul had written some tunes. He definitely knew Paul had written one as they had recorded it some years earlier. We asked Norman to send over the track so we could learn the tune and play it in his honour. We think it’s a cracking tune and we really wanted to record it so we were very happy to include this tune on an album for Paul. Crowley’s can be found in Ceol Rince na hEireann volume 1 as tune number 137! There’s usually a pair of them played together but we felt one was enough for this track. Instead we added a beautiful reel from Paddy O’Brien - Ormond Sound. LUCKPENNY SLEEVE NOTES Track 10 1. Billy McCormick - TRAD 2. Rosewood - Composed by James Scott Skinner 3. Gan Aim - TRAD The first tune was popularised by Paddy Cronin, so much so that it is often known as Cronin’s however it can be found in “O’Neill’s 1001 Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Airs and Marches” as Billy McCormick (number 341). The Rosewood jig I was happy to find out is a composition of James Scott Skinner.

Load more

  17

Copy Link